Chapter Fifteen
T-Rex froze. A tall man in a dark ski mask held Sierra clamped to his side with one arm. In the opposite hand, he held a grenade.
“I’ve pulled the pin. If you shoot me, I’ll release the handle. Sure, you’ll kill me, but the woman dies, too.”
T-Rex stepped forward, dropped his weapon to the ground and held up his hands. “Don’t hurt her. She’s done nothing to you.”
“Yeah, well, she’s going to get me out of here.” The man waved the grenade. “If this goes off now, it will kill me, her and half of the people in this building. Do you want that?”
“No.” Garner stepped up beside T-Rex. “No one will hurt you. What do you want?”
“I want that helicopter out there.”
“You’ve got it.” Garner turned to Caveman. “Get outside and clear a path to the chopper. Now!”
Caveman grabbed several deputies and ran out the door. Through the windows, T-Rex could see them clearing all personnel out of the path between the visitors center and the helicopter.
“I’ll need escorts to make sure no one takes a shot at me and the woman,” the captor said. “Consider it more collateral to ensure I make it to the chopper without dropping this baby.”
“You’ve got it,” Garner said. “I’ll escort you myself.”
“Me, too,” T-Rex added.
“Then let’s get going before the woman bleeds out.”
That was when T-Rex noticed the pool of blood on the floor beneath Sierra. His heart pinched hard in his chest. He stepped forward, wanting to go to her and apply pressure to the wound.
But the man with the grenade was calling the shots. One wrong move and the wound wouldn’t matter anymore.
“Let’s go!” Sierra’s captor yelled. He shoved Sierra forward, holding her close, the hand with the grenade held high for all to see and fear.
T-Rex feared all right. He didn’t see any way out of this scenario.
Sierra stared across at him, a crooked smile on her face. “I tried to escape. I guess I didn’t do so good.”
“We’ll figure this out. Don’t worry,” T-Rex said.
“Shut up and keep moving,” said the man with the grenade.
“Wait!” a shout went up. The vice president emerged from the theater, escorted by Ghost. “Leave the woman. Take me.”
The captor snorted. “A little late for heroics. I want in that helicopter in the next two minutes, or I’ll let go of this grenade. And I don’t care if it kills every last one of you.”
“Please, don’t. We’ll get you to the helicopter,” Garner assured the man. “Step this way. No one will hurt you.”
“Damn right, they won’t. Not if they want her to live.”
T-Rex moved to stand on the other side of Sierra and the man holding her hostage. Between him and Garner, they walked the pair to the exit, striding slowly to avoid any misinterpretation of their movements.
Garner was first through the door, holding up his hands as he went. “Don’t shoot!”
The parking lot in front of them had been completely cleared of all personnel. Many of the vehicles had been moved to allow the helicopter to land on the pavement. There was a line of cars in the handicapped spots between the visitors center and the helicopter.
Once T-Rex stepped through and moved to the side, the man with the grenade and Sierra emerged from the building. “Stay back at least ten yards,” he said as he moved toward the parking lot and the helicopter.
T-Rex tried to think of a way to save Sierra. Perhaps if T-Rex threw himself at her captor and landed on the hand with the grenade, Sierra would be spared. He tried to calculate the amount of time it would take for him to close the distance between them and the number of seconds it would take before the grenade exploded. He couldn’t risk it. If he didn’t make it in time, the terrorist would drop the grenade and it would be the end of the terrorist, Sierra, T-Rex and Garner.
He’d never been faced with a scenario this important in his entire life. When Gunny had been hit, they hadn’t known it was coming. They didn’t have time to prepare.
Knowing what could happen was far worse. If that grenade dropped and he lived through the explosion, he’d forever wonder if Sierra would have survived if he’d chosen a different option.
He appeared to be faced with a no-win situation.
If the terrorist made it to the helicopter with Sierra, there was no telling what he’d do with her next.
T-Rex didn’t want to think of the possibilities. He just wanted her safely away. Back in her room at the bed-and-breakfast, making love with him.
He wanted more time to get to know the brave woman and see if, as he suspected, they could be perfect for each other. He’d even consider giving up his military career to be with her. Anything. Just let her live.
* * *
SIERRA’S LEG HURT like hell, but she couldn’t stand by and let this man get away with a government helicopter and possibly killing the pilot and copilot. As they neared the parked cars, she formed a plan in her head. It wasn’t a good plan, but it was all she could think of. If she didn’t do something quickly, T-Rex would try to save her, and then all hell would break loose.
T-Rex wouldn’t let the terrorist leave the ground with Sierra. He’d do something horribly heroic like throw himself on the grenade. He was a good man with a lot of life ahead of him. He deserved to live it, not die taking one for the team or her.
Sierra couldn’t let that happen.
In the time she had left, her mind flashed through what they had experienced together. It wasn’t much, but their meeting and lovemaking had been intense and insanely satisfying. If only she had more time with him. If only she could have told him how she really felt about him.
If only she had another day to spend with T-Rex, she’d make the very most of it and savor it to the moment she died. All of this flashed through her mind and filled her heart, swelling her chest. Mrs. McCall had been right. In the couple of days she’d known T-Rex, she’d fallen for the big marine.
Sierra could imagine spending the rest of her life with such a man. Yeah, he’d be away a lot, and she’d be worried when he was gone, but she’d love him harder when he was with her. If only she’d had the chance to convince him he deserved to be loved and that he should give his lady love the choice of being there when he came home from war.
The walk toward the helicopter was slow due to her injured leg. She didn’t have a chance of outrunning her captor. Whatever she did would require her to sacrifice herself to make it happen. Because, as the closest person to the man with the grenade, it was up to her to do whatever it took to keep T-Rex, Garner and the helicopter crew from bearing the brunt of a terrorist’s plan. Thankfully, her captor had Garner and T-Rex back off to ten yards away from where they were. It would help with her plan if they had distance and cars between them.
As soon the terrorist marched her between two cars on their way to the helicopter, Sierra turned to T-Rex and dipped her head. Hoping he had caught her meaning, Sierra made her move and pretended to faint, letting her body go limp.
Her captor was thrown off balance and dipped with her weight. In order to balance himself and catch her, he bent and lowered the arm carrying the grenade as her body sank toward the pavement.
Then when she thought the bulk of the explosion would be sandwiched between the cars, she bunched her legs and shot up fast and hard, hitting her head beneath the man’s chin.
He loosened his hold on her and the grenade.
Sierra dropped to the ground and rolled beneath a car. The world around her exploded, rocking the vehicle above her so violently she knocked her head into the undercarriage.
Blackness claimed her.
* * *
T-REX HAD BEEN watching Sierra’s face, worried she would bleed out before she even made it to the helicopter. Forced to maintain their distance, he was at a point with two vehicles between him and Sierra. He couldn’t get to her fast enough to help her. He’d have to wait until they cleared the parked cars. But when her gaze darted to his and held, then she’d dipped her head, he knew she was going to try something.
He opened his mouth to shout Don’t do it. But it was too late.
Sierra dropped toward the ground, as if she’d fainted.
“Get down!” T-Rex shouted as he ducked behind a vehicle. An explosion knocked him off his feet. A back flash filled his head of the Afghan village and the explosion that had crippled Gunny.
After the earth stopped shaking and the debris stopped falling, T-Rex rose from his position.
“Sierra?” he called out. “Oh, God, Sierra!” T-Rex ran around the front of the vehicle he’d ducked behind and nearly tripped over the hood of the next vehicle. It had been blown completely off the car. The top of the vehicle was mangled metal, and somewhere gasoline was leaking.
“Sierra!” T-Rex’s stomach clenched as he looked between two horribly distorted vehicles to what was left of the terrorist. He held his breath, afraid of what he would find of Sierra.
She wasn’t there.
T-Rex straightened and turned around. Had she been thrown clear of the vehicles? He didn’t see her body lying anywhere close. “Sierra!”
A low moan sounded from beneath one of the cars.
T-Rex dropped down to his knees among the jagged metal and broken glass and peered beneath the chassis of what might once have been a sedan. A torn sleeve lay within inches of fingers. He reached for the fabric and nearly fell backward when it moved. A slim, feminine hand, marred with scratches and abrasions, reached toward him.
“Sierra?” He wrapped his fingers around hers and held on. “Oh, baby, we’ll get you out of there. Hold on.”
Garner arrived first, then Caveman, Ghost and Hawkeye. With the help of the other law enforcement teams, they lifted what was left of the mangled car off Sierra.
The emergency medical team that had been on standby moved in and pulled her out.
By then, she wasn’t moving. Her hand had gone limp in his as they lifted the heavy vehicle.
T-Rex followed the EMTs as they loaded her onto a backboard. “Is she...”
“Alive?” One medical technician glanced up. “Yes. But we need to get her to the hospital ASAP and check her for internal bleeding. We don’t know what damage she might have sustained due to the explosion or being crushed by the car.”
T-Rex bent to kiss her forehead and whispered, “I’ll be there when you wake.”
Then she was loaded into a medical helicopter and transported to the hospital in Bozeman, Montana.
T-Rex watched until the helicopter disappeared, his heart leaving with it. “I have to get to the hospital.”
“We’ll have the Army National Guard helicopter take you in a few minutes,” Garner said. “I want to go with you, but I also want to get an assessment of the situation here before I leave.”
“I don’t give a damn about what’s here. I need to be there when Sierra wakes.”
Garner clapped a hand to T-Rex’s back. “And I promise, you’ll be there, as soon as I get a status.”
The team gathered around the terrorist who’d taken Sierra captive.
“Grady Morris is back in the building, spilling his guts, hoping for a plea bargain for information,” Ghost said. “He’s pointing his finger at this guy as the ringleader.”
“Who is this guy?” T-Rex asked, reaching down to pull the ski mask off what was left of the man who’d almost killed Sierra.
Even before T-Rex removed the mask from the man’s head, Garner spoke, “What do you want to bet it’s Fratiani?”
T-Rex removed the mask. The man lying in pieces was Leo Fratiani, the land broker who’d tried to purchase Olivia Dawson’s ranch after her father was murdered.
T-Rex shook his head. “Why?”
“He thought he could get away with it,” Ghost said. “Morris says Fratiani was an engineer on one of the pipeline projects and was laid off when the work dried up. Since then, he’s lost his wife to divorce and his home to foreclosure. He tried his hand as a land broker in California, but when he tried to acquire his own properties, no bank would give him a loan. His credit was crap.”
“Then how did he get the money to outfit the Free America group with AR-15s?” T-Rex asked.
“Grady Morris,” Ghost responded.
“The politician?” Caveman shook his head. “Why the hell would Morris get involved with someone as shady as Fratiani?”
Ghost answered, “He wanted to stir things up in Wyoming so that he could appear to be the man people should vote for to clean up what was going on, and put people back to work on the pipeline.”
“Bastard,” T-Rex bit out.
Garner glanced at Ghost. “How’s the vice president?”
“Unscathed,” Caveman said.
“The other hostages?” T-Rex asked.
“No injuries to the hostages, other than Ms. Daniels.” Ghost chuckled and smiled at T-Rex. “Apparently, your girlfriend got them out before the shooting began.”
Sheriff Scott joined the Safe Haven team and faced Garner. “I want to thank you and your team for helping us diffuse the situation. None of our people were injured in the process. Of the Free America group, we have seven dead, three injured and eight who gave up when the shooting started.”
T-Rex turned to Garner. “Everyone is accounted for. Can we go to the hospital now?”
Garner faced the sheriff.
“We’ll take care of everything here.” Sheriff Scott nodded toward the waiting helicopter. “Go.”
T-Rex met Garner’s gaze.
Garner turned to Ghost.
“We can catch a ride back to Grizzly Pass with some of the sheriff’s people,” Ghost said. “I’d like to stay and help with the cleanup.”
The Homeland Security agent nodded to T-Rex. “Let’s go.”
They jogged to the waiting helicopter. Within minutes they were in the air and heading to the hospital. Eventually, they were touching down near the hospital in Bozeman. The pilots of the Black Hawk had to return to their post, leaving Garner and T-Rex to find their own way back.
T-Rex didn’t care. His number one priority was to be at Sierra’s side when she woke. She’d taken the fall to keep anyone else from being hurt by Fratiani. The woman had guts and a heart as big as the skies in Montana. She was more than he could have ever wanted in a woman, and, by God, he would be there when she opened her eyes. She didn’t have anyone else. And he needed to be the first face she saw.
It didn’t make any sense. All the years he’d refused to give his heart to a woman, knowing it wouldn’t be fair to ask her to stick around while he was off fighting wars. But for once in his life, he wanted someone to be there when he came home. He wanted that someone to be Sierra. Call him selfish, but he wanted that more than he’d ever wanted anything.
Sierra was strong, determined and had a big, loving heart. She deserved to be happy. T-Rex wanted to be the man who made her happy. If he had to give up his career in the Marine Corps, he would.
He was led to the emergency room waiting area, where he paced for the next thirty minutes while they evaluated and worked on Sierra. When the ER doctor finally came out, he glanced around the waiting room. “Family of Ms. Daniels?”
T-Rex raised his hand and hurried forward.
“Are you her husband?”
He didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
“The bullet went clean through her calf. There was some tissue damage, but we expect she will heal completely. She’s also got a concussion. Considering she was in the path of a grenade explosion, we’d like to keep her overnight for observation. Other than that, she should be able to go home tomorrow.”
T-Rex released the breath he’d been holding. “When can I see her?”
“Now. She’s been moved to a room on the third floor.”
“Is she conscious?”
He smiled. “Yes, and she’s been asking for a dinosaur. Maybe you’ll understand. Not just any dinosaur. She wants a—”
“T-Rex?” T-Rex’s face split into a grin. “I know what she wants.” He shook the doctor’s hand. “Thank you.” And he ran for the elevator.
He found her room and knocked on the door.
“Come in,” a feminine voice called out.
T-Rex pushed open the door and walked in.
A nurse stood beside the bed, adjusted the IV and turned toward T-Rex. “You wouldn’t happen to be T-Rex?”
He nodded. “Guilty.”
She stepped back so that T-Rex could see Sierra lying against the sterile white sheets. “This the guy you’ve been looking for?”
Sierra’s face and hands were covered in cuts and bruises, but her smile shined, lighting the room. “You came.”
“Wild horses couldn’t keep me away.” He crossed to the bed and lifted her hand to his lips. “Hey, beautiful.”
Her cheeks turned a pretty shade of pink. “I’m a mess. And my ears are ringing.”
“You’re alive, that’s all that matters.”
Her smile slipped and she studied him, sweeping her gaze over him from head to foot. “You and Garner?”
He chuckled. “Alive and well.”
Her shoulders slumped. “Thank God. I worried my attempt to escape would get others hurt.”
“On the contrary. Your attempted escape saved lives.”
“And your team?”
“All made it unscathed. It appears you are the only casualty.”
“Figures.” Her pout made T-Rex want to kiss her even more.
Still holding her hand, he sat in the chair beside her bed. “You know, I’ve been rethinking the whole military career thing.”
She frowned. “Oh yeah? I thought you had it all figured out.”
“That was BS.”
Sierra’s frown deepened. “BS?”
He grinned. “Before Sierra.”
“Oh.” She blushed and glanced down at her hands. “And now?”
“I’m thinking Wyoming might be a good place to live. As a civilian.”
Sierra shook her head. “Are you out of your mind? You’re a career marine. Why would you want to give that up?”
He brought her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “I believe there just might be more to life than killing the enemy.”
She squeezed his hand. “But the country needs you.”
“I’m finding that I need you, and I want to be a little selfish for once in my lonely, miserable life.”
Sierra’s fingers tightened in his, and tears welled in her eyes. “But you don’t like commitment.”
He lifted his chin. “It’s a guy’s prerogative to change his mind.” Then he winked. “What do you think? If I could find a job in Grizzly Pass, would you consider going out with me?”
She shook her head.
T-Rex’s gut clenched. He hadn’t thought through what he was going to say to her, but when he’d asked her out, he hadn’t expected no for an answer. “Why not?”
“I am not going to be the woman responsible for taking you away from the military duty you love.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “You do love being a member of the Marine Corps, don’t you?”
He nodded. “Yes, but—”
“Then why give it up?” She stared into his eyes. “I don’t have anything keeping me in Grizzly Pass. I’ve always wanted to see other places.” She dipped her head. “Just not by myself.”
“You’d follow me?”
She nodded. “If things work out between us, I’d follow you to the ends of the earth.”
He lifted her hand to his lips. “What if I asked to stay on here for a few more weeks? You know, give us a chance to get to know each other.”
She looked up through eyes swimming in tears. “I’d like that.”
“If I can’t extend my TDY with the Department of Homeland Security, I’ll ask for leave.”
“Then we have a date?”
“More than one, I hope.”
“So the big, tough marine is opening his heart to possibilities?”
He nodded. “To you.”
“What made you change your mind?”
“Babe, I’ve never met a woman who’d be willing to take a grenade for me. How can I not fall in love with you?”
She laughed out loud, winced and pressed a hand to her head. “Don’t count on me taking too many grenades.”
“Trust me, one was more than my heart could take.” He leaned forward and kissed her lips. “Sierra Daniels, I think I’m falling for you. Is it possible to fall in love so quickly?”
“Captain Rex Trainor, I have it from a good source, it doesn’t take long if you fall for the right person.” She wrapped her hand around the back of his head and deepened the kiss.
This was where T-Rex wanted to be. With this woman, where she was. Whether in Grizzly Pass or at one of his duty stations. As long as she was there when he got home, he’d keep coming home.